He's a Special Forces veteran making his pro hockey debut. She's a dogged sports reporter determined to get a scoop. She's also his best friend's widow...

Fans can’t get enough of Levi Hunt, the Special Forces veteran who put his NHL career on hold to serve his country and fight the bad guys. So when his new Chicago Rebels bosses tell him to cooperate with the press on a profile, he’s ready to do his duty. Until he finds out who he has to work with: flame-haired, freckle-splashed, impossibly perky Jordan Cooke.

The woman he should not have kissed the night she buried her husband, Levi’s best friend in the service.

Hockey-stick-up-his-butt-serious Levi Hunt might despise Jordan for reasons she can’t fathom—okay, it’s to do with kissing—but her future in the cutthroat world of sports reporting hangs on delivering the goods on the league’s hottest, grumpiest rookie. So what if he’s not interested in having his life plated up for public consumption. Too bad. Jordan will have to play dirty to get her scoop and even dirtier to get her man. Only in winning the story, she might just lose her heart...

GOOD GUY

by Kate Meader

Kate Meader’s books are like a box of chocolates. You know what you’ll get but you’ll still be delighted at how good they are. I don’t think there has been a hero, written by her that I disliked – her heroes are all awesome. She addresses matters that concern all of us in her stories giving them more depth. And GOOD GUY is no different.

Levi Hunt is a rookie for the Chicago Rebels who have had some great and some decent seasons since Harper, Isobel and Violet her sisters took over management. The special thing about Levi though is that he’s thirty, an age when most players are in their prime. Not very likely in the real world but it’s an interesting switch-up so I was totally game to meet Mount Grump. Levi served his country with the Green Berets before joining the Rebels, along with his best friend Josh, who died five years ago. What nobody knows – Levi has always been in love with Josh’s wife. He was the first who saw her but Jordan had only eyes for Josh, a fact that would crush any self esteem.

Jordan has moved past her grief. She still misses her husband but she lives her life and loves being a journalist, especially reporting about sports. Being a woman in such a testosterone laden profession is tough and she has to deal with the injustice on a daily basis. Like getting lewd pics from players, horrible comments on her podcast, male reporters looking down their noses and every other inequality you can think of. Jordan gets a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to write a profile about the Chicago Rebels’ newest addition, a man who is closed up like a clam. A man she has met a couple of times in her life but, she’s convinced, doesn’t like her. So now she has to perform the impossible and pry open the lid on Levi’s secrets.

Levi seemed like a grump in the beginning but soon I found out that he’s introspect, burdened with insecurities that had him second-guess everything Jordan said. But slowly she got through to him and it was really sweet to see him open up. While I knew that Levi must have a big heart from the start – exchanging the adoration of fans, the wealth and the limelight of being a hockey star for a dangerous military job – the depth of his goodness unfolded as I dove deeper into the story. The guy was a saint! A dirty, hot one but a saint all the same.

Life and love poured out, flooding his veins with hope. He was here. He had survived. And she was his prize. No contract, no goal, no cup could compete.

Jordan, however, wasn’t as easy to love. She was supposed to be this sunny, perky woman but it took me more than half of the book to warm up to her. Sometimes she seemed a little too cutthroat and opportunistic to me, too focused on the job. I wasn’t sure if she deserved Levi – for a long time I thought she’d always love her job more than the man. Ultimately she proved that she had ethics and I ended up liking her just fine.

I love this strong, silent—sometimes too silent—man who’s given so much of himself to everyone.

There is a bunch of secondary cast that I think we’ll see stories of. Theo Kershaw, a team member who had an aneurysm and has learned to live in the here and now. Elle, Levi’s team mate on his Green Berets team, a woman who has balls of steel, is snarky and seems to become Theo’s love interest. I can’t wait for that story! Then there is Joe, a homeless veteran – I really hope that Kate Meader can find a story for him because he deserves a happy ending.

I loved catching up with Harper, Isobel and Violet and if you’ve read IRRESISTIBLE YOU then you know what happened to Harper in the past, that she was a victim of domestic violence and the case was glossed over by her dad – the guy, also a Rebels team member was transferred instead of being dealt with him. This event is finally being brought into public which I appreciated. However, what I really wanted to see was the consequences it had for the jerk who hit Harper. I feel that this should have been addressed and I hope that Ms. Meader picks it up in the next book.

For the Chicago Rebels fans out there I can recommend GOOD GUY wholeheartedly. You will get this author’s entertaining writing style with a hero to swoon over and a lot of different real life problems to ponder. This is not my favorite book by this author but I enjoyed it a lot, still. I’m glad we get more Rebels books and I’m looking forward to seeing who’ll be next!

“Would you rather we continued this another time?” “Is my hard-on interfering with your ability to ask questions?”

About Kate Meader

Originally from Ireland, Kate cut her romance reader teeth on Maeve Binchy and Jilly Cooper novels, with some Harlequins thrown in for variety. Give her tales about brooding mill owners, oversexed equestrians, and men who can rock an apron or a fire hose, and she's there. Now based in Chicago, she writes sexy contemporary romance with alpha heroes and strong heroines who can match their men quip for quip.